I have some questions about DCC sound decoders-- dunno if anybody has answers, but here goes…
I have well over a hundred locomotives to upgrade to DCC and potentially sound. Obviously if I do them all that’s going to represent a significant outlay of buckaroos. And its enough cash to make me stop and think whether or not there is an alternate way it could be achieved.
I have a strong electronics and computer programming background and have been researching and mulling over the pros & cons of whether to buy commercial sound decoders or to make them myself. I am fully aware of the various issues (or at least the obvious ones) involved and am not put off by the idea of designing my own board, having a run made, stuffing the surface mount parts and developing the code (programming) for whatever embedded cpu I’d use, etc. I’m sure there are issues I haven’t thought of and am open to any observations people might have to make…
Of course probably one of the biggest roadblocks is the availability of sound clips. Finding decent clips to download into the things appears to be a potential issue. I’ve seen people online offering sound clips for sale. Does anybody have any experience with these and could comment on usability or quality?
But my real question is this-- I’ve been researching various MP3 (etc) decoder chips, audio DAC (digital-to-analog) chips, and all-in-one CPU + decoder + DAC chips, etc… and have been wondering what the “pros” use. Does anybody know what chips are being used in the Soundtraxx / QSI / Tsunami / etc sound decoders? Or could hazard a guess? They’d have to be fairly cheap to be commercially viable (at least in bulk quantities).
There are also a number of ATMEL and PIC controller parts that have enough onboard stuff they could be used… Suggestions?
I am also curious also whether the ability to produce / control multiple simultaneous sounds (ie. whistle while chuffing and the like) is being handled as a function of the device
My guess is that all of these questions and issues are what is preventing more manufacturers from entering the sound market (especially the polymorphic tone issue). I think the way the price on sound units and DCC decoders is dropping, and all the research you would have to do, time spent etc., that it would be cheaper to go with the commercial products. When I started with DCC sound, the on-board units were $295 each. Now a much better unit (both sound quality and DCC reliablity) is only $80. Good speakers in this size used to be about $30 each and can now be found for under $10.
Have you considered the Soundtraxx around the layout sound instead of On-board?
Are you looking at making sound-only decoders?? If so, you still need to get function decoders to run the engines, piggybacking the sound decoder on the regular decoder. Otherwise you would need to do a combined decoder.
As far as converting to DCC, do you run your 100 engines equally - i.e. do all get the same amount of running time?? I think most of us tend to favor certain engines because of the roadname or more likely because they are reliable and run well. Normally when converting to DCC, those engines that get used most should be the first converted. I’ve been in DCC for about 5 years and I started with the engines that ran best and that I liked using the best. I still have some engines that haven’t been (and may never be) converted. Like many people I set up my layout with a toggle switch so I could run on DC or DCC while I was in the process of converting.
Also, although some will argue about this (and make some valid points) you don’t really have to have every diesel engine sound-equipped. If you have two engines that usually work together, like two switchers that usually work back-to-back, having just one of them sound equipped is usually sufficient. I like having some GP’s for example that have sound and crew figures in them, and other GP’s that just have regular decoders and no crew. A sound/crew GP might do switching work or light road work, if it’s going to haul a longer train I add one of the non-sound / non-crew GPs to help it out. “Someday” I’ll probably have every engine sound-equipped (although running 3-4 sound engines together can soak up a lot of power) but until then I’m happy with just some “soundies” and some “silents”.
p.s. The MRC “Sounder” sound only decoder is a pretty good add-on to an engine with a decoder, and can usually be found for under $30.
Yes I have actually-- or at least the concept of Soundtraxx. It seems like a good way to possibly / enhance augment the tiny (tinny) sound from the locos. But there are issues with that concept / approach as well… timing, synch, transponding, etc. Plus there are still the same issues of where to come up with usable sound clips, etc. One of the advantages of such a system though is that you could also use it to pipe environmental sounds to the layout to create a background sound ambience. As a separate issue I have been looking around to see if there are any open source projects relating to soundfield / ambience control that could be applied over a large linear area (ie. the model railroad). I posted some questions about that too but didn’t get a lot of replies. Though the replies I did get were useful and gave me some useful info.
Its the dollars thing though that’s got me thinking so hard. Even if I only do half or a quarter of the locos, that’s still a lot of bucks. I did some preliminary research into cost and figure (discounting my own time) it could be done (including parts) in the $20-30 bucks-a-board range-- but that would also include DCC power control, and might not include the cost of the speaker. Haven’t researched those yet. But it would
My research has actually been directed in this area. I’ve come up with some really elaborate speakers that get much better sound quality. However, the cost to construct them makes them prohibitive to make and sell.